Zara scores a hat-trick at a Met Gala with a strong Spanish influence

Madrid – On the afternoon of Monday, May 4, 2026, East Coast time, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was doubly celebrating the opening of its traditional spring fashion exhibition. The show is organised by its clothing department. Its opening was once again preceded by the annual charity gala for the benefit of the Costume Institute. This event is popularly known as “The Met Gala” and this year featured Zara and the Inditex group as some of its main protagonists.

Organised by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the exhibition was financed by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. It also received support from the fashion house Saint Laurent and the publishing group Condé Nast. This year's show, which will not open to the public until Sunday, May 10, is organised under the allegorical title of “Costume Art”. This name aims to encompass the multiple facets of this extensive exhibition. It inaugurates the Metropolitan's new galleries, spanning nearly 12,000 square feet, which will now host the annual exhibitions of its clothing department and other fashion-related shows. As its name suggests, the exhibition delves into the art of dress and how humans have used it throughout history, both as a utilitarian and a symbolic medium.

To this end, the exhibition juxtaposes a wide selection of fashion garments and accessories with a curated selection of artworks, including paintings; sculptures; works on paper; and examples of decorative arts. Most pieces are from the Metropolitan Museum's own collection, but there are also notable loans. The “Costume Art” exhibition will feature works by designers and fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen; Givenchy; Saint Laurent; Marine Serre; Jean Paul Gaultier; Madeleine Vionnet; the Spanish brand Loewe; and the Spanish designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, creator of the magical Delphos dress that was a sensation in the 1920s. These designs are in dialogue with works by Warhol, photographs by Alfred Stieglitz and Richard Avedon, and the painting “The Blind Man's Meal” by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The exhibition is structured across 15 display areas, each with evocative titles like “Naked&Nude Body”, “Bodily being in its Diversity”, “Classical Body”, and “Abstract Body”.

The Met highlights that “through its collection, articulated in 19 thematic areas, the Metropolitan Museum of Art encompasses more than five millennia of artistic production, including diverse cultures, geographies, and epistemic traditions”. They add, “within this heterogeneity, a constant persists: the human figure, and more precisely, the clothed body”. “Draped, wrapped, tailored, armoured, engraved, painted, ornamented, and moulded in various ways, the body appears in all the Museum's galleries as a space where material form converges with social meaning”. This is seen through works where it is clear how “clothing not only covers” but also “mediates identity and articulates hierarchies of class, gender, belief, belonging, and difference, shaping the perception and understanding of bodies”.

“Fashion, in this broad cultural sense, transcends its secondary role to become an intrinsic part of the very structure of the Met's collection”, revealing itself as “a common thread that unites works across time and space”. This is the role that the exhibition seeks to highlight. Through “thematically significant juxtapositions”, it “invites the public to perceive familiar works as representations in which clothing structures visibility and facilitates subjectivity, rather than as autonomous forms”. It proposes “a decisive reorientation”, where “instead of treating fashion as an illustrative complement”, it is “conceived as an interpretive framework for reconsidering the politics of display”. “By placing fashion at the conceptual centre of the Met, ‘Costume Art’ expands aesthetics beyond distant contemplation to lived embodiment, where the clothed body emerges not on the margins of art history, but at its generative core”.

Zara scores a hat-trick at the Met Gala with its first Galliano and Marta Ortega's debut

It is essential to consider the thematic framework of the Costume Institute's 2026 exhibition and understand the specific purpose of “Costume Art” before highlighting the details of the Met Gala held on Monday afternoon in New York. This is important for several reasons. Firstly, the gala celebrates the exhibition's opening. Secondly, these annual events help the Metropolitan raise the necessary funds for its spring fashion shows. Thirdly, the exhibition's theme dictates the dress code for the gala attendees. For this occasion, the broad theme allowed guests considerable freedom in their choice of attire.

Key trends from the mostly wonderful outfits on the Met's steps included the dominant and elegant presence of black and white. This was showcased in designs like Karlie Kloss's Dior; Ayo Edebiri's Chanel; Blue Ivy Carter's Balenciaga; and the lingerie-inspired designs by Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton worn by Kate Moss and American actor Tyriq Withers, respectively. Another major star of the evening was the gold/champagne tone, championed on the cobblestone-effect red carpet by Georgina Chapman and Tate McRae in Ludovic de Saint Sernin; Grace Gummer in a sculptural Gabriela Hearst dress; and Margot Robbie in a draped gold Chanel gown. Beyond these colour palettes, several creations were particularly elegant. Amanda Seyfried wore a delicate pale pink Prada dress. American actress, composer, and singer Coco Jones wore an ash-brown Prabal Gurung gown. Emma Chamberlain stunned in a 1997 Mugler dress. Nicole Kidman wore a flattering, sparkling red Chanel dress, and Julianne Moore chose a seductive Bottega Veneta.

Sharing the spotlight with these leading names in fashion and culture, the Spanish brand Zara made a surprising debut on the Met Gala red carpet. The star chain and main commercial brand of the Inditex group dressed not one, but three of its guests for the major fashion event. Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, after wearing Zara during the last Super Bowl, attended the Met Gala dressed as an older man in a particularly elegant black tuxedo with a bow detail at the neck by Zara. American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, at 77 years old, debuted on the Met red carpet presenting the first design created by John Galliano for Zara. It was a baroque construction in midnight blue with a velvet-detailed bodice, reminiscent of Galliano's era at Dior, hinting at the direction of his new role as a “creative collaborator” for Zara. Marta Ortega, the non-executive chair of the Inditex group, also attended her first Met Gala. She was accompanied by her husband, Carlos Torretta, and wore a fluid satin dress with a chiffon overlay, all in the same midnight blue as Galliano's first design for Zara. The attendance of Amancio Ortega's daughter highlights two things. Firstly, the increasingly prominent role Inditex is carving out in the fashion industry. Secondly, the good relationship Marta Ortega seems to have established with Anna Wintour, the gala's host—this year alongside Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Beyoncé. This was already evident during her private visit to the Spanish fashion multinational's headquarters in Arteixo last January.

As a mass-market “fashion house”, Zara and Inditex have undoubtedly reached a new milestone at this Met Gala, evolving from a “fast fashion” brand to a “fast couture” one. On the Met Gala red carpet, they have accelerated ahead of competitors like Mango, which debuted at the event by dressing Sofía Sánchez de Betak in May 2019. Similarly, at the 2026 event, the American company Gap created an exclusive, custom-made design for Kendall Jenner by Zac Posen, creative director of Gap's GapStudio line. This daring design was inspired by one of the American chain's signature basic white T-shirts, but its cut and silhouette were very reminiscent of John Galliano's recent work as creative director of Margiela.

A red carpet with a strong Spanish influence

While the debut of Zara and Inditex at the Met Gala is significant for the mass-market fashion industry, the strong Spanish influence on this year's red carpet is also noteworthy. Beyond the presence of the Spanish fashion giant, this influence was asserted on the Met's steps by several attendees. Bee Carrozzini, Anna Wintour's daughter, wore a red Givenchy dress inspired by traditional Spanish Manila shawls. American actress Sarah Pidgeon and British actress Isla Johnston both wore creations by the Spanish brand Loewe, which was also represented by its creative directors, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Canadian actor Hudson Williams wore a bullfighter-style Balenciaga suit inspired by the short, Goya-esque jacket in blue silk velvet with cord and glass bead decoration, created by Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1947. British actor and singer Luke Evans attended the gala in a suit by the Spanish house Palomo. The brand, which debuted at the Met by having one of its designs included in the 2019 exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion”, dressed Evans in a Peter Marino-esque style. He wore a burgundy leather suit inspired by the homoerotic work of Finnish artist Tom of Finland.

The Spanish brand stated, “In response to this year's theme, Evans's outfit is inspired by the bold and graphic sensuality of Tom of Finland, reflecting his precision of line, his celebration of subcultures, and his unapologetic eroticism”. To achieve this, a look was created featuring a bomber jacket “combined with the brand's iconic ‘Ass-Air’ trousers, distinguished by their emblematic buttoned back opening”. The outfit was “enhanced with matching gloves, tie, and belt, while metallic stud details add texture and an avant-garde touch”.